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Permira, the pan-European buy-out firm, is considering a flotation of Memec, the semiconductor company it bought in one of Europe's most complicated private equity deals just three years ago.

A spokeswoman for the company said: "We are definitely looking at it," but declined to comment further. It is understood that a flotation would take place on a US stock exchange and could value the company at around $1bn (€800m).

Another investor in Permira's funds said: "A disposal now would be rather sooner than we expected." Private equity firms generally look to exit an investment between three and five years after acquiring it, but Permira had to nurse Memec through a trough in the semiconductor market and might hope to sell the business for a higher once it has demonstrated improving results.

Permira declined to comment.

Permira acquired the Memec stake in 2000 in a complicated transaction from E.On, the German utility, which had put its Veba Electronics division up for sale. Memec was the only part of this division that Permira was interested in buying but E.On was only interested in selling Veba as a whole.

Permira looked for potential buyers for the other parts of the division. It approached Arrow Electronics and Avnet, the electronics companies. Neither of the corporates could have acquired the whole of Veba, because of antitrust rules, but each could have bought, and wanted, the parts the other was barred from owning.

Permira arranged for the three parties to buy the entirety of Veba and immediately divided it between themselves. E.On agreed to the transaction, which saw Veba taken off its hands for $2.6bn. The disposals to Arrow and Avnet went through within six weeks after competition authority clearance.